Abstract
The behavior of a curved beam element is studied by comparison to an analytic solution. In the curved beam element, curvature effects are incorporated through a “shallow-shell” type theory. It is shown that when low-order, inplane displacement fields are used for the element, the curvature terms increase the bending stiffness due to contributions from the membrane strains; this is called “membrane locking." Reduced integration yields a bending stiffness, which is in better agreement with the analytic value, and yet it retains the bending-membrane coupling, which is characteristic of curved elements. The results of the analysis are verified by several numerical examples.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 172-176 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Journal of Applied Mechanics, Transactions ASME |
Volume | 49 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 1982 |